


Calculated Risk

by Lucy_Claire



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-27
Updated: 2015-11-27
Packaged: 2018-05-03 16:38:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5298587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucy_Claire/pseuds/Lucy_Claire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A slip-up during their latest team-up has Oliver considering if risking Barry's life, even slightly, is worth solving a crime.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Calculated Risk

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: 'You can't protect me' requested by Tumblr user kingdom4eartsgirl23

Teaming up with Barry had become an almost regular part of the Arrow’s missions, but he didn’t always come as the Flash, sometimes he came to help un-pin a murder case from the Arrow’s good name or to dress up in Oliver’s uniform whenever Dig wasn’t feeling up to it or had to be seen in the same place as Oliver Queen. The times where he needed to get people off his trail and have both the Arrow and Oliver Queen seen at the same time, it also helped that Barry gave the Arrow his inhuman quality of disappearing into thin air. 

The difference this time was that this mission wasn’t about Oliver keeping up appearances but about cornering his old adversary, Cyrus Gold, the Acolyte. The plan was for Barry to distract him, play a game of Shoot Me, If You Can with him while Oliver snuck up and delivered the fatal blow to his back but situations involving Barry never really went exactly as planned.

It was going well, just as they had agreed on, the only issue was that Barry got too used to dealing with his super-powered and complicated problems back in Central City that he underestimated Gold. He didn’t put that much of an effort into anticipating his attacks, getting distracted enough to, somehow, react slower than usual.

It didn’t help that after a few misses Gold picked up on Barry’s pattern and shot right before he moved. The arrow hit Barry just as he was turning around to see it and the shock of the impact nearly topped him off the roof.

Oliver bit his tongue to stop himself from yelling Barry’s name and let his arrow fly and meet its mark right at the base of Gold’s neck.

Oliver hopped over Gold’s knocked out body and rushed over to Barry.

“I had it,” Barry insisted, doubled over and holding the arrow that was pierced in his arm. “You know I had it, why didn’t you just wait until I got to your side.”

“I couldn’t wait when he was about to get you.”

“He wasn’t going to get me, Oliver.”

“Oh, yeah? What’s this then?” Oliver ripped the arrow from Barry’s arm, Barry yelped loudly, clutching his shoulder. “Give me a warning next time, those arrows hurt you know.”

“Barry, this isn’t a joke, you could have died if I didn’t get him in time.”

“Fastest man alive here, even if he did get lucky once, I would have been halfway across the city by the time he even tried to aim for my heart or head. You know that.”

“You would be if you were actually taking this mission seriously.”

“Who said I wasn’t?” Barry argued. Oliver couldn’t see his face in the hood but he could bet that Barry was pouting at him. 

“Your goofing around and lack of attention did, it’s the reason why the fastest man alive got hit by a damn arrow.”

“Alright, fine, I wasn’t giving it my all. Is that what you wanted to hear? You happy now?”

Oliver ground his teeth together frustratedly. “No.”

“Then what do you want?”

“I want us to work together without me having to worry about your safety, I need to know that you’re here to back me up if something goes wrong, not the other way around.”

“I don’t you I can take care of myself, have you seen half of what I did with the rogues in Central?”

“That doesn’t change the fact that I’ll still worry about you, I can’t focus if I worry about you.”

Barry got offended. “Worry about yourself.”

“I can’t, not with you here. When you’re here I put your well-being over mine, I worry about you getting out alive more than I do about myself and if I ever feel that you’ll get hurt I’ll put everything on hold just to save you first and it’s a problem.”

Barry was quiet, he had to gaping. “Are you saying I’m a distraction?”

“I’m saying I don’t want to worry about protecting you more than I already do.”

Barry threw off his hood. “Dammit, Oliver, you can’t protect me! It’s great that you try to, and I really do love you for it, but if I get hurt it’s on me, I chose the superhero life too, remember? I agreed to help you out.”

“And I’m starting to regret asking.”

Barry smacked his arm. “Would you quit it? I wanted to do this and if you think about I’m at less risk than you are, I can heal fast, if I fall off a building I can run down it and I can move so fast that I can phase through walls and weapons, so if anyone here is more liable to die it’s you.”

“Not when I’m careful, which I always am.”

“Why are you so obsessed with this one arrow? You shot me in the back with two arrows before just to prove a point.”

Oliver finally lost his cool, he grabbed Barry and shook him to emphasize every word. “Forget the damn arrow, forget Gold, this is about you! Why don’t you get that I can’t stand the thought of losing you like this, losing you thanks to a position I put you in.”

Barry moved his arms free of Oliver’s grip and wrapped them around his neck, pulling him into a tight hug. After a few seconds of hesitation, Oliver’s shoulders relax and his arms circled Barry’s waist. “You’re not going to lose me, Oliver.”

“How do you know?”

“Can’t tell you, or else it could disrupt the future I already saw.”

Oliver rolled his eyes and pulled Barry closer. “You better be right.”

“I am.”

“I just can’t help it, worrying. You know that.”

“I do, but we’re not here to keep an eye on each other, we’re hear to have each other’s backs, we’re a team, remember?”

“Yeah, we are.”

They stayed like that for a while, wrapped up in each other, swaying slightly in the cold night air.

“We should probably get down and give the police a tip-off on where to find Gold,” suggested Oliver, pulling away from the hug.

Barry looked over the ledge of the roof and grinned at Oliver. “Wanna try going down the building running?”

“No, thanks.”

“If I run across the roof and then down I can get enough momentum to keep us going so you don’t have to worry about crashing.”

“No, Barry.”

“Oh, come on.”

“Just because we agreed that we can’t protect each other from everything doesn’t mean I should enable your risky ideas.”

“My risks are calculated risks.”

“The answer’s still no.”

Barry stuck his tongue out at him jokingly and Oliver pretended to try pushing him over the edge. 

They would have a lot more team-ups like this, probably. Whatever future Barry was holding out on, it better have more moments like this, just because he couldn’t protect Barry for the rest of their lives doesn’t mean he couldn’t cherish him.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on [Tumblr](http://lucyclairedelune.tumblr.com)


End file.
